2 minute readThere’ll be a bit of Twenty20 next year, but basically this is it. This is as close to a definitive goodbye as he’ll give us. The very reason why Darren Gough didn’t go out in a blaze of glory is the very reason why he deserved to do so. He
Continue readingTag: Retirement
Graeme Hick retires
2 minute readWe learnt a lot through Graeme Hick. We learnt that nothing’s preordained. We learnt that heroes can let you down. We learnt that huge talent isn’t the sole ingredient for Test success and we learnt that if you mess about dropping and reselecting players it doesn’t help them one bit.
Continue readingMushy came, Mushy saw, Mushy took a million wickets, Mushy got a bad knee
< 1 minute readMushtaq Ahmed may not quite have been THE BALLS, but he was most definitely ‘the county balls’. Every match he’d stumble in and take as many wickets as there are atoms in the universe (about nine) and every season he’d decide The County Championship. It is very, very bad that
Continue readingStuart MacGill retires
< 1 minute readStuart MacGill was fun. You never quite knew what to expect from him. He wasn’t erratic in a Shane Warne kind of way. There was a certain consistency in Warne’s back page headlines. MacGill was creatively diverse with his odd behaviour. He would shout at team mates like a nutter.
Continue readingMarcus Trescothick’s international retirement
2 minute readThere’s no point dwelling on it, because he’s never going to play for England again, but there’s a fair chance that Marcus Trescothick is still England’s best batsman. Kevin Pietersen’s record may look a little better, but he doesn’t have to face the new ball. Marcus Trescothick was so good
Continue readingJason Gillespie’s retirement
2 minute readJason Gillespie has effectively retired. He’s going to play in the ICL and that C in place of a P is the difference between making millions for no real sacrifice and making slightly less for being banned from first-class cricket. The IPL being the sanctioned Indian Twenty20 league of course.
Continue readingJames Bruce retires from cricket
< 1 minute readAt the age of 28. Uninjured. We’ve been here before, haven’t we? James Bruce is going one better than Alex frigging Loudon though. He’s moving into a career ‘in the city’. He’s got a job with ABN Amro Bank, who we’ve never heard of but instantly hate anyway. Where we
Continue readingStephen Fleming retires
2 minute readWe really ought to have something to say about Stephen Fleming, but we really don’t. We know that he was a brilliant captain, because we read it about a thousand times. We don’t question that fact, but we’re struggling to think of any evidence. Our first thought was of the
Continue readingAdam Gilchrist’s career
3 minute readAustralia were the best side in the world before Adam Gilchrist was promoted to the Test side. Afterwards, they took on an air of invincibility. How can a side take the fifth Australian wicket and be faced with a batsman who middles the ball with his first stroke, throws the
Continue readingShaun Pollock isn’t playing international cricket any more
< 1 minute read“I realise I have been blessed by God and feel I have nurtured my talents to the best of my abilities.” No, actually what happened was that you were ‘blessed by God’ and then you threw that blessing back in His face, pausing only to give him a prolonged hand
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